Dressing the frets on the maple meck
I covered fret dressing in this earlier post but will repeat the steps here for completeness. The pictures should tell the story but I’ll add some text where I think it’s necessary to explain further. The first job, before the frets can be leveled is to remove the lacquer from them. The easiest way to do [...]
Read MoreSpraying the neck
Before spraying I sanded the neck again, checking that everything was clean and wiped over with a tack cloth to remove any dust. I then sprayed another couple of coats of lacquer to seal before moving on to the tinted coat. You can spray with the neck hanging vertically, but I like to spray with [...]
Read MoreButterscotch Tele with Joe Barden Pickups
I put this guitar together today for a customer. The body is from guitarbuild.co.uk and the owner finished it using my Butterscotch nitrocellulose lacquer. I fitted the Joe Barden pickups, with the bridge mounted to the body, G E Smith style. There is a 4-way switch fitted, giving in-series as well as in-parallel pickup combinations, [...]
Read MoreBakelite Snake Head Pickguards
I had a request to make one of these so made a few whilst I was at it! These pickguards are made from “Bakelite” sheet and lacquered in clear gloss nitrocellulose . They’re made to fit replicas of Leo Fender’s 1949 “Snake head” prototype that he used to take around to clubs for artist to [...]
Read MoreIce Blue Metallic Telecaster Assembled
Here is the Telecaster assembled. I’ve used the bridge from a Fender USA 62 Reissue, Fender jack cup, AllParts parchment ‘guard and some great sounding hot AlNiCo V pickups from The Creamery. I’m considering giving it the freezer treatment once the lacquer has hardened sufficiently.
Read MoreGretsch inspired Telecaster
I put this Telecaster together over the weekend. It has a Warmoth replacement body and a neck and bridge from a Fender Classic Series guitar. I cut the scratchplate out of 2mm acrylic sheet and painted the back with Plasti-Kote metallic gold paint to complete the look.
Read MoreLa Cabronita build (4)
The final chapter – the guitar is now complete with cream pickguard and on its way to Italy.
Read MoreLa Cabronita build (3)
The La Cabronita is complete. Well, almost. I’m sending it back to Italy without a pickguard as the owner is undecided whether it should have one. Here are a few shots of the guitar for Daniele with different colour pickguards. The 3-ply one was supplied my Guitar Mill and I made the singly-ply ‘guards.
Read MoreTelecaster-style guitar build
I finally finished this build today – a Tele style guitar which uses a Warmoth vintage style body and an AllParts fat neck. The ash body was stained and sprayed with a few coats of clear satin nitrocellulose lacquer for a natural look. The pickups are Bill Lawrence and also fitted is a Bill Lawrence Q-Filter [...]
Read MoreCustom guitar build with Trem-King
This guitar was built for a customer in the USA who as you’ll see below, had a very strong view regarding what he wanted. Warmoth body and neck The body and neck were made by Warmoth, the body being chambered and exceptionally light. My customer wanted a tightly coupled neck join so opted for my neck [...]
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